Nick Peron

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Black Panther (vol. 3) #48

Nick Peron

The Death of The Black Panther, Book 1: The King is Dead

Credits

Now

The kingdom of Wakanda is reeling following the death of the other Black Panther who had recently appeared in their lives.[1] T’Challa sits on his throne and ponders the events leading up to this tragedy. The events play in his mind in reverse order.

Earlier

First he recalls Nightshade (Tilda Johnson) lamenting losing her patient. Monica Lynne tries to comfort her.[2] He recalls Everett help rush the other T’Challa to the operating room. This is followed with how Queen Divine Justice pushed their plane to the limit to get them back to Wakanda as quickly as possible as the other King’s vitals had begun to fade.

All he can remember is that they were too late. He recalls how they were returned to their own era after being trapped in the year of 1875. Having helped the Asgardians recover the Golden Apples of Idunn in that era, they were assisted in returning to their proper time. Once back in the present, they were returned to the Wakandan Consulate in New York City by Balder the Brave.[3] Back in their own era, Everett Ross and Henry Gyrich head off to Washington to give their report.[4] As a result, Gyrich gets his old job at the NSA back.[5] The other T’Challa used this time to try and convince Monica Lynne that he still loved her. Having broken things off with her T’Challa for good, Monica tries to resist. However, this other Panther proved to be far too charming and he manages to kiss her. Tragically, it would only be a single kiss as that was when the other T’Challa collapsed.

Now

As T’Challa continues to mourn his double, Everett stands outside the throne room trying to muster the courage to go in and comfort his friend. Eventually, he decides that doing so would insult the King’s dignity and decides to remain silent.

The Black Panther is visited by the mutant ruler known as Magneto. Magnus had come to offer his condolences. He knows that the other Black Panther was from 10 years in the future and transported to this era by King Solomon’s Frogs. The former ruler of Genosha, Magneto explains that he has come to offer his condolences even though he was uninvited.[6] Magnus assumes that this was an oversight, but suggests that perhaps Storm had something to do with it. This makes T’Challa think back to his last meeting with Ororo Monroe, and how she warned him not to become like Magneto.[7] Attacking the mutant, T’Challa is briefly incapacitated when the Master of Magnetism uses his powers to wrap the Panther up in metal. However, T’Challa manages to claw his way free and then rips out Magneto’s throat killing him. That’s when reality snaps back to normal as this encounter was not real, but a hallucination. T’Challa hasn’t been visited by Magneto at all. His mind drifts back again….

Earlier

After the other T’Challa collapsed, he was brought to the royal hospital in Wakanda. There, Nightshade was able to get him into the stasis chamber they found him in. Her examinations discover that this T’Challa was in the advanced stages of a brain aneurysm that will ultimately claim his life. His condition was worsened after his recent battle with Iron Man.[8] As she explains this to Everett and Queen Divine Justice, Queen recalls how they discovered this other T’Challa hidden in the domain of the Jabari Tribe. She then decides to find out what M’Baku (the Man-Ape) knows about how the future version of T’Challa ended up there.[9]

She visits M’Baku who has been in a holding cell since his recent defeat at the hands of the Black Panther. The Man-Ape knows very little about how the other Black Panther came to be hidden in the Crystal Forests where his tribe lives. He tells her that the present day T’Challa stashed his duplicate there some time ago. When Queen suggests his aid might help during his upcoming trial. The assertion makes M’Baku laugh in her face.

Queen Divine Justice reunites with Vibraxas (N’Kano), the young Wakandan teen that she has fallen in love with.[10] When she sneaks up behind him, he reminds her that the law forbids them from having a relationship. QDJ doesn’t care, and kisses him. When he pushes her away, Queen says that the reason why she came to find him was she needs his help.[11] She tells him that M’Baku is being held indefinitely without trail and in her mind, this makes him a political prisoner. She also has begun to see how her people, the Jabari, have been penned up in what amounts to a concentration camp. She wants her people to be free, but will need N’Kano’s help to do so.[12]

Dawning his ceremonial habit, T’Challa pays his respects to his future self in the Tranquility Temple. As his hands start to shake, T’Challa recalls how this is a symptom of the head injuries he suffered from a recent fight with Iron Fist. His thoughts are interrupted by Monica Lynne who comes to tell T’Challa how the last time they were in this room he ripped her heart out. She then reveals to him that she was present when Storm came to warn him about becoming Magneto and saw as T’Challa admitted his weaknesses to her and the two shared kisses. This is the reason why she ended their on-again-off-again relationship and she has now come to say goodbye for good. Saying she won’t be back again one week later. That’s when T’Challa finally offers her an explanation as to why he called off their engagement.[13] It was all because of his future self.

Meanwhile, Queen Divine Justice and Vibraxas break M’Baku out of his cell. However, Queen tells him that his release is conditional. Holding him on tribal honor, she has him promise to return to the Crystal Forest and refrain from starting conflict until a date can be set for a fair trial. M’Baku promises QDJ that he will follow her orders without question.

At the same time, T’Challa explains that recently his people found the other Black Panther wandering the jungles of Wakanda in a state of madness. When he suddenly collapsed, T’Challa had his scientists examine him and determined that he had come from some ten years in the future. Somehow, his future self was pulled back in time in the present day by King Solomon’s Frogs, ancient time travel devices. T’Challa theorizes that this might have something to do with the fact that he had previously handled the artifacts some years earlier.[14] They also determined that he was dying and believing that this was his fate, T’Challa called off his engagement to Monica as he was a man without a future and did not want to burden her with that fate. He also tells her that he now has the same affliction as his future self. When Monica asks how that could be, T’Challa says the reason is irrelevant. Touched by this honest, Monica still decides to leave, but tells T’Challa that she’ll see him in a week.

Once Monica is gone, the Man-Ape ambushes T’Challa from behind. M’Baku — bound by his promise to Queen Divine Justice — hasn’t come to attack the Black Panther, at least not directly. While his vow forced him not to harm the present day T’Challa, it didn’t stop him from harming the Panther’s future self. The Man-Ape then smashes the stasis chamber that was keeping the future Black Panther alive, ending his life.

Now

Contemplating all that has happened, T’Challa struggles to find purpose since his death has been all but destined to come to pass!

Recurring Characters

Black Panther (616 & 1145), Everett Ross, Monica Lynne, Nightshade, Queen Divine Justice, Vibraxas, Henry Gyrich, Magneto, Man-Ape

Continuity Notes

  1. As explained in this story, this version of T’Challa comes from 10 years in the future. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4, this timeline exists in Reality-1145.

  2. Here, Tilda says that Monica whined all the time during her relationship with T’Challa. The two have had an on-again-off-again relationship since they first met in Avengers #73. Fed up of waiting for marriage and constantly being kidnapped by the Black Panther’s foes, Monica ended their relationship for good in Black Panther (vol. 3) #30.

  3. The Black Panther and his allies were sent back to the year 1875 by King Solomon’s Frogs in Black Panther (vol. 3) #45. Over the last two issues they helped Thor recover the Golden Apples of Idunn. As their trip into the past altered the events of Thor #370, it created an divergent reality. This has been designated Reality-86870, per Thor: Asgard’s Avenger #1. Presumably, the Balder seen here is from that reality.

  4. We saw Everett giving this report in Black Panther (vol. 3) #45.

  5. At the time of this story, Gyrich had been disgraced after being forced by Hydra to participate in a conspiracy to eliminate all Earth’s superhumans using nanites. See Thunderbolts #34-50 and Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1-3. He was assigned to the State Department and part of T’Challa’s American attaché in Black Panther (vol. 3) #30. However, from here, Gyrich will go on to be liaison for the Avengers again, after the team becomes a UN peacekeeping force in Avengers (vol. 3) #61.

  6. Magneto was given control of Genosha, an African island that was formerly an mutant aparthied state in X-Men (vol. 2) #87. At the time of this story, the island was decimated in a Sentinel attack, of which Magneto was one of the few survivors. See New X-Men #115.

  7. Storm warned T’Challa not to become like Magneto back in Black Panther (vol. 3) #26.

  8. Black Panther-1145 switched places with his Earth-616 counterpart to fight an evil future version of Iron Man (from an unspecified alternate reality, time of this writing in Jan. 2024) in Black Panther (vol. 3) #45. This T’Challa’s brain injuries have been associated to similar injuries sustained by T’Challa-616 during his fight with Iron Fist circa Black Panther (vol. 3) #39. However, it seems that reality has diverged as our T’Challa somehow recovers as he will stop showing symptoms of his head injuries in Black Panther (vol. 4) #1.

  9. The Black Panther of Reality-1145 was discovered hidden in a statue at the home of the Jabari Tribe in Black Panther (vol. 3) #35. Nightshade was able to revive this T’Challa in issue #40, but was unable to cure him of his condition.

  10. Everett’s narration of events mentions the Vibranium accident that killed N’Kano’s parents and gave him his vibrational powers. See Fantastic Four #391.

  11. Queen Divine Justice and Vibraxas had fallen for each other since they first met back in Black Panther (vol. 3) #26. However, as explained in Black Panther (vol. 3) #1, a member of the Dora Milaje is forbidden from having relations with anyone but the King of Wakanda. QDJ and N’Kano’s romance has been denounced since issue #32.

  12. As is explained in Black Panther (vol. 3) #34-35, Queen Divine Justice’s parents were Jabari royalty. When the tribe were ostracized by Wakandan society, her parents fled to the United States in exile. It was there they tried to start an ordinary life in Chicago, only to be murdered by Wakandan loyalists. Unaware of her family lineage, QDJ was raised by a Wakandan operative until she was recruited into the Dora Milaje in Black Panther (vol. 3) #13.

  13. T’Challa had proposed to Monica back in Black Panther: Panther’s Prey #3. They remained engaged until he abruptly cancelled it with no explanation circa Black Panther (vol. 3) #1. The reason for doing so was never clearly explained until this point.

  14. T’Challa’s first experience with King Solomon’s Frogs happened in Black Panther #1-4. According to the Marvel Chronology Project places Panther-1145’s arrival in this era as happening between the events of Avengers: Collector’s Edition #1 and Fantastic Four Unlimited #1. This is supported in the Black Panther profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #1. Per the Sliding Timescale this would place 1145’s arrival as being about 3 years prior to the main story.

Topical References

  • Everett’s narration states that they traveled through time 130 years into the future from 1875. However, the number of years between that year and the Modern Age will continue to grow as the Sliding Timescale bumps the present day forward in time. As such, this measurement of time should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication.